Thank you for the powerful testimony. Your words sear with truth! Even in this moment of regression, this slide to authoritarianism and the rising of fascism, there is the alternative, the very faith to which we are called. The aspirations of the American ideal, an experiment in self government, are framed by those good though less than perfect words of the declaration and further ingrained in the constitution. It is a construct against the darkness that can invade the human heart. I agree that nationalism of any sort is, at its core, counterintuitive to the call of Christ. So, in the darkness of a fallen world, there is a need for a beacon, a laboratory for righting the wrongs and telling the truth. In essence it is a place where those of all faiths, and certainly those who follow, Jesus can proclaim truth, work to render justice and practice mercy, be forgiving and do love. In this broken and fallen world, there are tools, levers and the practice of realpolitik. The practical considerations of this age will soon include all of those victims you itemize and the sum of their suffering. We must be the balm, the solution, the pragmatic muscle of Love. Much can be undone, if we are committed to the sacrifice required. We should not expect any "nation"to be a heaven, but it is ours to find a way to make it less than the hell it is for those who now and will suffer under the empires' boot heal. And we are here to profess and proclaim truth, to engage the empire of our day, and to use every offering of public trust that we may gain to re-gear and re-tool our experiment in self-government. The declaration, the struggle is worth celebrating. Carry on brother.
I do not think “Proud Boys” is just the name of a fringe group of terrorists. Proud Boys is the rallying point for MAGA. They know the truth. They know this land was stolen. They know that wealth was stolen from the enslaved. They know that their most intimate relationships exist with women who they control with myths and terror. But they want to be Proud Boys, so they lie. They lie to themselves that those things happened a long time ago or never at all. They lie so they can read the beautiful lies our country was founded with. Lies about freedom and equality and the same opportunity for all. Those words make them feel proud. But they are lies. May we be Humble Humans who recognize white male privilege and feel shame. May we dedicate ourselves to truth, compassion, and love and leave pride of things that never were as we left our boyhood.
They lie because they don’t know who they are without the lies. We tell children stories to understand things as children. We do this in history and church; then when it’s time to grow up, we don’t because we are afraid to not be the heroes of the story.
Thank you for the powerful testimony. Your words sear with truth! Even in this moment of regression, this slide to authoritarianism and the rising of fascism, there is the alternative, the very faith to which we are called. The aspirations of the American ideal, an experiment in self government, are framed by those good though less than perfect words of the declaration and further ingrained in the constitution. It is a construct against the darkness that can invade the human heart. I agree that nationalism of any sort is, at its core, counterintuitive to the call of Christ. So, in the darkness of a fallen world, there is a need for a beacon, a laboratory for righting the wrongs and telling the truth. In essence it is a place where those of all faiths, and certainly those who follow, Jesus can proclaim truth, work to render justice and practice mercy, be forgiving and do love. In this broken and fallen world, there are tools, levers and the practice of realpolitik. The practical considerations of this age will soon include all of those victims you itemize and the sum of their suffering. We must be the balm, the solution, the pragmatic muscle of Love. Much can be undone, if we are committed to the sacrifice required. We should not expect any "nation"to be a heaven, but it is ours to find a way to make it less than the hell it is for those who now and will suffer under the empires' boot heal. And we are here to profess and proclaim truth, to engage the empire of our day, and to use every offering of public trust that we may gain to re-gear and re-tool our experiment in self-government. The declaration, the struggle is worth celebrating. Carry on brother.
This comment can be a post itself. Thank you for it brother.
It's not a happy 4th this year whatsoever🗽...I'm just praying for better years ahead!🙏
Perhaps we are here for a time such as this
God bless your words, and all of us, indeed
Thanks brother
The devil was exhausted,
having spent centuries
consolidating his power:
coopting every story about
God into colonial conquest
justified by inerrant scripture,
incarnating himself into
self-righteous, hypervigilant
mobs by stirring up hysteria
about the weird kids,
pounding out diatribes
on millions of keyboards
at once to build a lake
of fire with mutual scorn and
sanctimonious pearl-clutching,
handing all the kingdoms
of the earth to geriatric
narcissists and their legions
of flag waving patriots.
He sat on the heavenly throne
before the rapturous worship
of the multitudes who had
crowned him their God,
having crucified Jesus in
every imaginable way in
every queer and brown body,
but even in his absolute victory,
he could not feel the satisfaction
he thought he would taste,
so he cried out again to
the God whose abandoned
throne he had usurped:
“Why aren’t you doing
anything to try and stop me?”
That you just wrote this as a response… powerful friend. Thank you
I do not think “Proud Boys” is just the name of a fringe group of terrorists. Proud Boys is the rallying point for MAGA. They know the truth. They know this land was stolen. They know that wealth was stolen from the enslaved. They know that their most intimate relationships exist with women who they control with myths and terror. But they want to be Proud Boys, so they lie. They lie to themselves that those things happened a long time ago or never at all. They lie so they can read the beautiful lies our country was founded with. Lies about freedom and equality and the same opportunity for all. Those words make them feel proud. But they are lies. May we be Humble Humans who recognize white male privilege and feel shame. May we dedicate ourselves to truth, compassion, and love and leave pride of things that never were as we left our boyhood.
They lie because they don’t know who they are without the lies. We tell children stories to understand things as children. We do this in history and church; then when it’s time to grow up, we don’t because we are afraid to not be the heroes of the story.
Thank you for your truth! I'm feeling all the feels today after the past month of fighting to educate people about that bill.
They don’t want to be educated they want to bow at the golden calf